Looking out of the window – Light House

Going up…

This was an interesting and historic photo to capture. The picture above was taken from the inside of a lighthouse at a nearby lake. The journey up wasn’t to bad. However, I was advised by the staff that I couldn’t bring my backpack of camera that I had been carrying that day gear up to the top of the Light house. That was no problem. After choosing the best camera and lens combination I made the journey up the flight of spiral stairs to the top. The view was magnificent and this photo does NOT do it one ounce of the justice it truly deserves!

The camera and scenery

I know that is highly recommended to shoot during the golden hours of the day. It is also discouraged to shoot during the brightest time of the day. However, I set my own rules because I was there at this spot, on this particular day, at that exact time, with the right camera and lens combo. I was not going to pass up the opportunity to capture a photo and try to come back later. For one because I couldn’t and second I didn’t feel like it even if I could.

Scene

I chose to capture the photo at the middle of the Light house so that I could include a nice foreground, middle ground, and background. It was nice to include those things because it gives a nice sense of perspective and size to the elements in the photo. There was very limited space to test different a composure. So I had to move quickly because people were slowly catching up to me from behind. I made it a point to hurry up the first few flights so I would not hold up the line behind me trying to capture a photo.

Camera

I chose to carry my mirror less camera with a wide-angle lens for the photo above for two reasons. It was extremely light weight while carrying up the light house stairs. Secondly, the Fujifilm X series in camera processing captures midday light much better than my Nikon DSLR. I chose to use a narrow aperture at full zoom of the wide-angle lens. I wasn’t necessary for me to capture much of the inside of the Light house. However, I did want to include the window frame in the photo. I used a high shutter speed so I would not blow out the brightness in the sand and sky. To make sure the details were not lost in the shadows, I shot in RAW and opened the shadows a little in post processing.

On a final note

I am very happy that I didn’t follow the “norms” and decided to capture this photo in midday light. There are some situations where you must access the scene and make the decision NOT to photograph because of horrible lighting; either too bright or too dark. Everyone is different when accessing the scene for this factors. I believe it all comes down to what you are trying to convey in the picture you create.

Spark creativity by capturing the world around you one photo at a time